Date: Fri, 30 Dec 1994 07:58:08 +0100 (NFT)
From: Bj|rn Skolander
ILGA European Regional Conference
Helsinki 27th-31st December 1994
The Queer Internet: The Lesbian Internet
29 December, 1994
Eva Isaksson
What resources, if any, exist for lesbians exploring the
Internet? All the general gay newsgroups and mailing lists are
open to lesbians, too, and serve for many as an important source
for information.
If we keep in mind that while Internet is not hierarchical in
the sense we have grown used to, and while your sex or gender do
not always carry the same meaning that they do in 'real life',
the fact remains that women are still a minority among Internet
users. Lesbian voices are not always very noticeable in the
areas with high volume of general discussion where anyone can
join.
As a result, Usenet News remains the net space without a very
visible lesbian presence. On the other hand, mailing lists are
the preferred way by which many lesbians choose to communicate.
It is certain that there are some national traditions. In
countries where lesbians are used to existing separately from
the mixed gay momement, they tend to avoid the Internet
altogether as a 'male dominated' medium. In other countries, the
lesbian activity on Internet might have grown noticeable, once
it has been started.
The women only mailing lists have played an important role. The
first of those was started in 1987 by a straight woman who
wanted to offer lesbians a place of their own. The sappho list
has since grown to a very well known list, with some 700
subscribers at the moment. It remained the only major lesbian
space on the Internet until a couple of years ago.
In the early 1990's, some smaller mailing lists were started as
outgrowths from sappho. In fact, every lesbian mailing list now
in existence can consider the original sappho as the space where
it all began. These outgrowths include lists with focus in a
wide variety of areas:
Lesbians in science, political dykes, lesbian mothers,
European lesbians, lesbians into s/m, k.d.lang fans,
bisexual women, older lesbians, lesbian academics, and
so on.
All of the lists listed above are international: any lesbian
with an Internet account can subscribe to them. However, the
U.S. origins of Internet and the large participation by U.S.
users has influenced the lesbian Internet a lot. While there are
lesbians from all over the world, the discussions have tended to
be dominated by U.S. concerns. For example, while the
'politidykes' list is a forum for general lesbian activist
discussion, the topics are often of interest mainly to U.S.
American lesbians.
There have been attempts to make the lesbian Internet more
international. Euro-sappho is a list which focuses on topics of
interest to European lesbians. In Finland there is a national
lesbian mailing list called sapfo-list with 100 subscribers. It
has been active since 1993.
The function of a lesbian mailing list is usually social: the
messages might be chatty, or intimate, or have an erotic tone to
them. They might also contain news items, announcements about
local events or campaigns. International lists can be a way to
keep an international lesbian dialogue alive in such a way that
few other media have achieved so far for equally large numbers
of lesbians.
It takes some effort to start and maintain a mailing list for
lesbians, but once it has been started, it can offer great
potential for exchanging information and ideas very quickly.
Other lesbian Internet resources include materials stored in
information servers, and lesbian channels on the Internet Relay
Chat, to mention the best known existing net spaces.
Here's how you can subscribe to two lists mentioned above.
To subscribe to Euro-Sappho:
Send to the address: majordomo@seta.fi
The request: subscribe euro-sappho your@address.here
To subscribe to Politidykes:
Send to the address: majordomo@vector.casti.com
The request: subscribe politidykes First Lastname
You can find more lists by looking at the WWW home page:
http://www.seta.fi/~eva/lezlist/lezl.html
NOTE: Feel free to reproduce this information in your national
gay/lesbian magazine or newsletter!